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Freedom As Process
Apr 14, 2012 By Charlie Schwartz | Commentary | Text Study | Pesah
The last days of Passover take on a relaxed feel for me. With the cleaning done, the four cups of wine, Hillel sandwiches, and bitter herbs a distant memory, I tend to focus on the remaining festival days and the visions of fully leavened bread that are inclined to pop into my head. The midrash above, based on the Torah reading for the seventh day of Passover, creates a sharp contrast to this feeling of relaxation and matzah saturation.
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The Exodus and Einstein
Apr 7, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Pesah
As we gather to celebrate Passover this week, the attempts of all those who seek to prove or disprove the Children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt seem to surface anew. Applying the rigors of science to religion is no new endeavor for Judaism. In each generation—a theme these days—there are those who have attempted to reconcile Truths. How could the Torah’s version of history agree with the Truth that we know from philosophy or science?
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For Our Students
Mar 31, 2012 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol
I got valuable help this year in writing my annual Shabbat Hagadol message to teens and 20-somethings from six teens and 20-somethings who are studying at The Jewish Theological Seminary’s Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies.
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Sacrifices Seen Through Love and Law
Mar 31, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Pesah
Every year, the weeks during which the Torah portions of Leviticus are read, many Jews complain about the challenge of finding interest or meaning in such esoteric material. I, myself, also struggle to engage deeply with these texts when I forget that even our ancient Sages felt the need to bolster the relevance of these laws, which largely became defunct after the Second Temple was destroyed.
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Redemption Through Law
Jan 28, 2012 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Bo
In the midst of the tumult of the Exodus—while the plagues are still falling like locusts upon Egypt; after the deep darkness that plunged the land back into primal chaos; as the Israelite slaves desperately and, it must be admitted, somewhat gleefully despoil their former masters just after the ominous warning has been issued of the impending death of Egypt’s firstborn—the Torah pauses in its breathless narrative as if for a commercial break, a word from our Sponsor.
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A Study in Redemption
Jan 28, 2012 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Va'era
If you followed last week’s Torah portion closely, you are probably sensing that this week’s portion, in the words of Yogi Berra, is “déjà vu all over again.” Last week, in Parashat Shemot, we read an account of Moses’s lineage, of God’s announcing that He will take the people out of Egypt, of a staff turning into a snake and water into blood, of Moshe’s speech-impairment, and of God’s appointing Aaron as surrogate spokesperson for Moshe. Every one of these topics appears in this week’s parashah too.
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The Final Plague
Jan 28, 2012 By David Levy | Commentary | Text Study | Bo
Each year, when we read the Exodus story and again when we encounter it at the Passover seder, we are confronted with a serious moral question. We must ask ourselves how we feel about the nature of the collective punishment of the Egyptians.
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Bringing Compassion into Our Lives
May 7, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Emor
Late this past Sunday night, Erev Yom HaSho’ah (the Eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day), I heard the news that Osama bin Laden was dead, that the most infamous nemesis of the United States since Hitler and Stalin had been killed in an American military operation to capture him. While watching the television reports of celebrations outside the White House and near Ground Zero, I felt mixed emotions: relief for the end of the manhunt; elation over the retribution for innocent lives lost; and discomfort with my pride in the violent end of another human life, even one as murderous as this adversary’s was.
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The Origins of a Nation
Apr 23, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Pesah
As we set our tables and prepare for our seders, we cannot help but hear the echoes of our journey from persecution to freedom amplified in the headlines. Our holiday of Hodesh Ha’aviv—the “Month of the Spring”—comes at a time when the ripple effects of what has been dubbed the Arab Spring are just beginning to be felt.
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A New Question for Passover
Apr 16, 2011 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah
The means to ultimate redemption—and a sure sign that redemption has arrived—is peace between the generations. We can’t hope for redemption of the world, the prophet says, if the hearts of fathers and sons (the literal translation of the prophetic verse) are not “returned upon” each other.
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Singing about Sacrifice
Apr 16, 2011 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pinehas
When I attended junior congregation as a child, one of my favorite Shabbat morning songs began with the words uv’yom haShabbat. We kids used to belt it out. I remember the same thing happening when I spent summers as a camper at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. But why sing today about slaughtering and offering up lambs on the altar in the Temple? An answer can be found in this week’s Parashat Pinhas, where these words, or rather these verses, originate.
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Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat
Apr 16, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Aharei Mot | Shabbat Hagadol
One of my favorite customs for Shabbat Hagadol is to read the Maggid section of the Passover Haggadah in advance of the first seder.
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Between Tum’ah and Tohorah
Apr 2, 2011 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shabbat Hahodesh | Tazria
It seems more than kismet that Passover falls when it does, following on the heels of the parashiyot of Leviticus in which we discuss the most base of subjects. In fact, rabbis and commentators through the ages have found the laws of tum’ah and tohorah (ritual impurity and purity) covered in these weeks before Passover so unsettling that, presumably in reaction, they have enthusiastically embraced the following statement from the Talmud: “Questions are asked and lectures are given on the laws of Passover beginning thirty days before” (BT Pesachim 6a). Surely, this is an avoidance tactic on the part of rabbis, but maybe it is also for the sake of the community—to save them from many discussions that would make them lose their appetites for the kiddush that follows services.
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Birth, Both Spiritual and Physical
Apr 2, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Tazria
How can men understand something like pregnancy, which is so fundamentally foreign to the male experience? As contemporary Jews, we often raise questions about how our classical sources, compiled by men, portray “the other,” in this case, child-bearing women. We find in the midrash above an ancient rabbi’s attempt to understand childbirth, the opening subject of this week’s Torah portion, and identify men’s role in it.
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Different Kinds of Teshuvah
Mar 19, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Tzav
What does “a broken spirit,” let alone the return of animal sacrifice, have to do with preparing for Purim, the wildest holiday in our tradition?
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Finding Inspiration in Bullocks and Bloodstains
Mar 12, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Vayikra
Reading Leviticus, it is clear that the reality of the people who generated the text is radically different from our own. It is a book that reads as ancient, obsolete, and irrelevant. In fact, one recent popular edition of the Bible left it out altogether. So what are we, regular readers of the Torah text and seekers of higher meaning gleaned from it, to do with the next three months of Levitical parashiyot?
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Intent of a Question
Jan 8, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Bo | Pesah
Everyone knows that four children are mentioned in the Passover Haggadah and that one of them is the evil child. Probably fewer of us are aware that the question attributed to this child is a biblical verse found in this week’s Torah portion, “What do you mean by this rite (avodah)?” (Exod. 12:26).
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Woody Allen’s Torah
Oct 12, 2010 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Lekh Lekha
The brilliance of Allen’s film arises from his portrayal of the ethical corruption of each of his characters and the extent to which he plays on the sense of sight. Ironically, the ophthalmologist, who specializes in physical sight, is corrupted by ethical blindness, while the rabbi, who represents morality, is physically going blind. Indeed, the juxtaposition of sight and insight figure prominently in both Allen’s film and this week’s parashah, Lekh Lekha. By focusing our exegetical lenses on the parting of ways between Avram and Lot (Gen. 13), we discover not only a physical separation between the two characters, but also a spiritual and ethical divide that cuts to the very core of their world views.
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Why We Rejoice
Sep 23, 2010 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Sukkot
We are blessed with so much—until we are not. Which is why we don’t count chickens before they hatch or rejoice before the crops are in: it ain’t over till it’s over.
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How Do We Deal with Frustration?
May 29, 2010 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Beha'alotekha
As the Israelites begin their journey away from a place they’ve called home for 400 years toward an unknown land and future, their frustrations turn into complaints that ignite God’s wrath and test the limits of Moses’s patience. Two models emerge from this cycle of stories.
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